The present invention relates to a ink tray for applying ink to a printing plate.
In flat-bed postage meter mailing machine, it is conventional for a mailing machine to receive envelopes in a seriatim manner from a feeding apparatus. The mailing machine includes a postage meter which has a indicia printing plate. The mailing machine also includes a system for reinking the postage meter printing plate. It is conventional for the reinking system to include a reinking roller which is wiped across the postage meter indicia printing plate for transferring ink to the indicia printing plate. The postage meter indicia printing plate is reinked in this manner after each printing cycle. The reinking roller is replenished at its home position receiving replenishing ink from a reservoir through one or more intermediate ink transfer rollers. Reinking occurs after each print cycle to assure consistent print quality.
Pursuant to an effort to improve the envelope throughput speed while maintaining or improving the print quality of flat-bed postage meter mailing machine, an identified limiting factor is the time required to reink the indicia print plate. The duration of a wipe cycle time, i.e., reinking the indicia print plate, is dependent on the ink transfer properties of the wipe roller and the distance of travel required for the reinking roller to completely traverse the postage meter indicia plate. The travel distance is substantially increased when an indicia printing plate includes an advertisement slogan as well as a postage indicia.
It has been determined that an ink pad application system employing an ink tray sized matting to the indicia plate and positionable laterally from a home position to a position abutting the indicia plate face provides a consistent travel distance independent of indicia date size. However, one of the difficulties in employing ink pad systems in a postage meter mailing machine environment is providing a renewable source of ink to the ink pad in such a manner to assure even and regulated adsorption of ink throughout the ink pad in a manner suitable for high speed continuous mail processing applications.